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Gaia - Earthgiantess (oil, 1985)
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It was the Spring equinox 1985 - the year my son died later in the summer, in August. Jill Smith, who lived with us for
a while in Wales before moving to Lewis, and I were walking the coastal path not far from St. David's. It was a very
windy day and we had to hang on not to get blown off the path and down the steep cliffs into the stormy sea below. Jill
was carrying her baby son, Taliesin, on her back and it was all quite dangerous. Taliesin had been born in the tipi village and
when he was six days old Jill and I "baptised" him in St. Non's well's holy and healing waters. Suddenly, as we walked
along, I saw an incredible rock in the sea that looks just like a great hunched troll woman, a great power emanating from
her/it. Behind her was a great cave and the waters swirled between her legs. I just had to sit down and draw. I was sitting
on the edge of a cliff, perilously close to falling and hanging on to my paper, pens and pencils almost with my teeth.
As I was working on the painting, which
is six feet tall, back
in the cottage, I
received a card sent
from Copenhagen in
Denmark. On the
card was the picture
of a beautiful little
mermaid sculpture.
She sits out by the
sea on a rock in
Copenhagen and
mourns forever her
lost love and the life
she gave up for an
unfaithful prince. She
went into my painting.
"The Little Mermaid"
is a cruel but beautiful
fairytale written by HC Andersen and
brings up memories
from my childhood in
Sweden.
As the painting progressed, the rock began to embody Earth Herself and I call Her Gaia.
The Precambrian rock, along the Pembrokeshire coast, is in fact one of the most ancient on earth.
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Through Space and Time The Ancient Sisterhoods Spoke To Me